The Smallville producers showed a new season eight trailer, which included footage from previous seasons, but also new footage of Green Arrow, Aquaman, Black Canary and new characters Davis Bloome/Doomsday and Tess Mercer. New clips included Clark getting the stuffing beat out of him in Russia, Chloe saying that she's nothing special, while trying to get away from an attacker, and Chloe and Jimmy together. And Metropolis in ruins. Green Arrow shoots Clark, and then we see an S-pendant in Clark's hand. And Doomsday saying: "There's something out there, and whatever it is, it can kill you."

The big announcement at the Smallville panel was that Geoff Johns will write an episode of the show, introducing the Legion Of Superheroes, Clark's buddies from the 30th and 31st centuries. It's a kind of goofier, more futuristic version of the Justice League, where everybody has "flight rings" that allow them to fly, and most characters have one super-power that's spelled out in his/her name, like Matter-Eater Lad or Lightning Lass.

Also, the producers repeated their previous statements that they would keep the "no tights" rule for Clark, but relax the show's old "no flights" rule. They said they wouldn't rule out a cross-over with fellow CW show Supernatural. Tess Mercer won't just be replacing Lex as head of LuthorCorp, she'll also be Clark's boss at the Daily Planet. Chloe will be developing new powers, and other new attributes, this season. Also, it was hinted that the footage of Metropolis strewn with rubble was the result of Doomsday putting the big crazy smackdown on Clark's ass. Picture of Smallville Comic-Con bag from Seat 42F. [Thanks To Smallville Podcast and Wizard Universe]

Dan Didio hinted at another announcement earlier in the panel by accident, saying "Okay, so we got Battle For The Cowl - Oh shit! Cut that," before moving into a Q&A session where the new writer of Booster Gold was announced (creator Dan Jurgens is taking over writing as well as art), we were promised new focus on Aquaman, and given hints about the identities of future zombie supervillains in Geoff Johns' The Blackest Night (Will we see zombie Jor-El or zombie Earth-2 Superman? "Anyone dead is eligible," said Johns - Except for Garth Ennis' Hitman).

The announcement itself came in the form of a thirty-second video at the end of the panel, which showed a Bat-Signal shining on a coffin while the words "Whatever Happened To The Caped Crusader?" appeared on screen. The story - written by Gaiman and drawn by Andy Kubert - will begin in January next year, but no details were given on where it will appear or in what form. But it's beginning to look a lot more like Batman's definitely going to disappear at the end of RIP, if not die outright...

IDW's Saturday panel at Comic-Con also included Editor-in-Chief Chris Ryall mentioning that the company was talking to various "big name" authors about a line of upcoming adaptations of classic science fiction novels. IDW's Ideas And Dreams [Comic Book Resources]

The Archie heroes - The Shield, The Web and The Jaguar and many other characters with a definitive article in front of their names - will return under the guidance of JMS in the Brave And The Bold series, which will take its time in reintroducing the franchise, giving each character a two-part origin followed by one issue solo story: "It's a great opportunity," said Straczynski of the chance to revive an entire franchise.

The Milestone characters - created by Dwayne McDuffie, Michael Davis and Denis Cowan in the early '90s to reflect a more multicultural society than the traditional whitebread heroes - have been trapped in publishing limbo since for the last decade, even with the successful Static Shock cartoon that ran from 2000 - 2004. Now McDuffie gets to bring the characters back, and into the DC Universe, in the Justice League of America series... except for Static himself, who's going to join the regular line-up for Teen Titans.

These moves are part of a very definite decision on DC's part to diversify their line: "We're looking to expand the DC Universe," explained DC Executive Editor Dan Didio. When asked what would be next, Didio explained that if he could get his hands on Hanna-Barbera characters like Space Ghost, The Herculoids and The Galaxy Trio, he'd be very excited. Grant Morrison was more adventurous: "Marvel's next!"

Image revealed their next big project at their Comic-Con panel: Image United, a six issue limited series drawn by company founders Whilce Portacio, Jim Valentino, Marc Silvestri, Rob Liefeld, Erik Larsen, and Todd McFarlane. But the audience seemed less thrilled by the fact that each Image founder will lay out an issue as well as draw their own signature character, than that Robert Kirkman will be scripting. Although enthusiasm in the crowd for the project, scheduled for 2009, was strong, the majority of the questions in the crowd were for Kirkman, and many pleaded for Kirkman to include his popular character Invincible in the miniseries.

When asked if newer characters from Image's long history would be included, Erik Larsen said, "We'll be coming up with new guys, but it's going to be our guys. It would be too much work to try and figure out who else to fit in." The project is exciting, according to Larsen, because “this is really one of the things only we can do. You can’t go to Marvel and get the definitive guys for a crossover—you can’t get Jack Kirby, you can’t get Steve Ditko—but you can get us doing our definitive takes on our definitive characters.”

Despite their own joking cynicism about the possibility of Image United shipping on time—"this is crazy," deadpanned Silvestri behind flashy sunglasses, "how is this ever going to work?"—Kirkman promised this project wouldn't fall behind. “We have dates in mind that we want to hit and we’re going to be working on hitting those dates.”

Other news mentioned at the panel but announced previously included Whilce Portacio drawing Spawn, Darwyn Cooke writing and drawing a full issue for Madman Comics (#14), and a crime book written by Garth Ennis (crime apparently being the new zombies, what with all the announcements of crime projects here at SDCC).

Speaking of zombies, Kirkman mentioned October would be the five year anniversary of Walking Dead, and there would be several events to commemorate the event, including a 2009 calendar, the publication of the fourth volume hardcover, and a book collecting the covers to the first fifty issues. Also, "The Road to Washington," a new story arc would begin that month in the title, with the characters traveling to the nation's capital to discover what's left of the United States.

Between this and the announcement of Image United, fans of the original artists (call them Image zombies) and The Walking Dead (call them Zombie zombies) left excited, but it remains to be seen if even a galvanizing force like Kirkman can keep six creators notorious for blown deadlines and short attention spans on track.

Another similarity between the two awards ceremonies was the lack of ability to stick to running times; as MC for the evening Bill Morrison - writer and artist for Matt Groening's Bongo Comics - said at the end of the evening, "I'd really hoped to bring this to a close before 11pm, but gave up on that idea somewhere around 9:30. At least I brought it in before midnight!" Nonetheless, from the opening speech from a potentially inebriated Frank Miller (who - ironically for a man who's abandoned comics for Hollywood - told the audience, "If you're trying to do comic books: Forget the movies, forget the games. Don't try to do three things at once. Give me a really good comic book.") to the closing appearance by Miller's Spirit leading man Gabriel Macht (The Spirit was the main sponsor of the ceremony), the event was a questionably enjoyable mix of everything that makes up the comic industry these days... including the unexpected celebrity endorsements.

While the crowd went wild when Samuel L. Jackson appeared to present three awards - displaying a much-needed self-aware humor when winners took awhile to walk the long distance from their seats to the stage in silence - Jane Weidlin's attempts at humor were much less successful, if only because making jokes like "Get these motherfrakking snakes off this motherfrakking plane" wouldn't even have been funny when Snakes On A Plane was released two years ago. That said, her accompanying troop of the Empire's Finest provided some much needed spectacle to what was, otherwise, a fairly dry affair despite the best efforts of co-hosts Gerard Way, Tom Kenney (the voice of Spongebob Squarepants - which doesn't seem to be that unlike his own voice, really) and Reno 911's Tom Lennon and Ben Garant, who at least offered those who didn't win awards some much-needed solace:

We've all heard people say that 'if you're nominated, then you're a winner.' Usually that's bullshit. But tonight, everyone who's nominated for the Best Penciller/Inker of Penciller and Inker Team award really is a winner, because if you don't win, you'll go home with a George Foreman grill. The cash value of the grill may be higher than that of the award, we should warn you.

The best acceptance speech of the night came from Best Writer Ed Brubaker - the man who killed Captain America - who seemed genuinely shocked by his win:

I was texting somebody because I was so sure I wouldn't win... I'm gonna get out of here, because [Y: The Last Man writer] Brian K. Vaughan should've won. And don't you guys know who Joss Whedon is? I mean, Jesus Christ.

Joss probably didn't feel so bad, however; his indie webcomic Sugarshock won the Best Digital Comic award, while the Buffy The Vampire Slayer series won Best New Series.

The award winners in full:
Best Writer: Ed Brubaker for Captain America, Criminal, Daredevil and The Immortal Iron Fist
Best Writer/Artist: Chris Ware for Acme Novelty Library
Best Writer/Artist (Humor): Eric Powell for The Goon: Chinatown
Best Penciller/Inker or Penciller/Inker Team: Pia Guerra and Jose Marzan Jr. for Y: The Last Man
Best Painter of Multimedia Artist: Eric Powell for The Goon: Chinatown
Best Cover Artist: James Jean for Fables, The Umbrella Academy, Process Recess 2 and Superior Showcase 2
Best Coloring: Dave Stewart for BPRD, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Hellboy, The Umbrella Academy, The Spirit and many others
Best Lettering: Todd Klein for Justice, Fables, League of Extraordinary Gentlement: The Black Dossier, Crossing Midnight and many others
Best Continuing Series: Y: The Last Man
Best Limited Series: The Umbrella Academy
Best New Series: Buffy The Vampire Slayer
Best Single Issue: Justice League of America #11, by Brad Meltzer and Gene Ha
Best Anthology: 5 by Becky Cloonan, Fabio Moon, Gabriel Ba, Vasilis Lolos and Rafael Grampa
Best Publication for Kids: Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 and Mouse Guard: Winter 1152
Best Publication for Teens: Laika by Nick Abadzis
Special Recognition: Chuck BB for Black Metal
Best Archival Collection/Project - Comic Strips: The Complete Terry And The Pirates, Vol. 1
Best Archival Collection/Project - Comic Books: I Shall Destroy All The Civilized Planets!
Best Humor Publication: The Perry Bible Fellowship: The Trial of Colonel Sweeto and Other Stories
Best US Edition of International Material: I Killed Adolf Hitler
Best US Edition of International Material - Japan: Tekkonkinkreet: Black and White
Best Comic-Related Periodical/Journalism: Newsarama.com
Best Comics-Related Book: Reading Comics: How Graphic Novels Work and What They Mean by Douglas Wolk
Best Publication Design: Process Recess 2, designed by James Jean and Chris Pitzer
Best Digital Comic: Sugarshock by Joss Whedon and Fabio Moon
Best Short Story: Mr. Wonderful by Daniel Clowes, from the New York Times Sunday Magazine
Best Reality-Based Work: Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow
Best Graphic Album - Reprint: Mouse Guard: Fall 1152
Best Graphic Album - New: Exit Wounds
The Bill Finger Excellence In Comics Writing Award: Archie Goodwin and Larry Lieber
The Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer Award: Cathy Malkasian, for Percy Gloom
The Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailer Award: Brave New World in Santa Clarita, CA
The Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award: Paul Levitz, President of DC Comics

Image by Marvel Comics' Agent M.

Morrison on Final Crisis:

I know where it goes, and we come up with the biggest idea ever to be done in superhero comics. I know where it goes, and it's fucking great. I know I'm not supposed to say that, because it says here 'Please do not swear, because there are people here under 18.' Folks, here's the thing: People under 18 have never heard swearing.

Greg Rucka on the plot of tie-in book Final Crisis: Resist:

The losers try not to die. And fail. It is 30 pages of, imagine if you were living in occupied France in WWII. Now imagine occupied France is the entire planet. Now imagine that the Nazis are New Gods. And now imagine that you are you. You're screwed.

Geoff Johns on what happens in Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds:

Superboy Prime goes to the future and messes things up pretty bad. And the Legion recruits these other Legions to stop him, like the Zero Hour Legion and the original Legion. It's got a lot of Green Lantern stuff in it, it's got a lot of [Flash] stuff in it.

Johns again, this time on Final Crisis: Rage Of The Red Lanterns:

Rage of The Red Lanterns starts The Blackest Night. The Guardians have decided to execute Sinestro and the Red Lanterns want to make sure that they do it first.

Dan Didio on Barry Allen's return:

I think it brings the story full-circle. This is the final Crisis story, the fact of the matter is that, when these characters died, the writers and editors always found ways to bring Barry Allen back. The character was so strong that we felt that this was someone that people want to read about. This brings everything back around.

Morrison on the ultimate fate of the DC multiverse:

If you're going to do a crisis, you have to do a multiverse... I created a bunch of new worlds. Basically, in FC #6 and 7, Darkseid starts crashing everything in, and you'll see them then. The multiverse might be broken, but it'll be around afterwards. Did I spoil the end? Okay: The goodies win.

Morrison explains away all continuity problems to do with Final Crisis while also explaining what you'll see in the fourth issue of the series:

Darkseid was beaten in Death Of The New Gods and falls backwards through time, and as he falls backwards in time, he pulls the entire universe with him. So once he pulls New Earth with him, the entire multiverse collapses... So if you see any mistakes, that's that. When he falls backwards through time, it's the first time that Darkseid enters reality, his energy destroys everything. That's what's happening now.

Morrison on what happens with the New Gods post-Final Crisis:

Big plans for the New Gods. Nothing's cooler than Jack Kirby, but this is pretty cool... The ideas with the New Gods were just looking at what Kirby wanted to do and going back to that. Someone like DeSaad, a torture god. We thought, we'll give him more of a combover, and then we thought, sweaty, combover, what else? High heels! The thing is, he makes up Darkseid porn. DeSaad's just sitting there, putting Darkseid's head on sexy bodies and thinking "I don't want to be caught," but he really wants to be caught, you know?

Admit it; that last part sounds much more exciting than shapechanging aliens invading Earth, right?

O'Bannon couldn't be happier with his new job of comic writer:

This is a dream opportunity for me - to get to continue the Farscape saga... The comic book series starts off directly where the PEACEKEEPER WARS mini-series left us. It's like we're finally getting to experience Season Five of Farscape.

And what kind of thing are we going to see in the unofficial fifth season? How about something that the television show always failed to bring us?

One of the places that we always wanted to explore in the television series was Rygel's home world of Hyneria. No matter how passionate we were about telling that story, we simply couldn't do it. But now one of the massive-scale arcs in our first 4-issue comic series has us off to Hyneria... The great thing about the comic book medium is that the scope and scale of the Farscape world is no longer restricted. In terms of where we can go, what we can show — these new stories will be Farscape Unrestrained.

[Boom! Studios]

Robinson, often cited as the uncredited creator of the Joker, was the guest of honor at a panel that seemed as much about the Joker than the Batman. Part of this comes from the fact that all the current creators admitted that the Joker was their favorite Batman villain, although under duress (Morrison complaining that he didn't want to say it, because it was so obvious; Dini said that he'd "write a Joker comic even if it had nothing to do with the Batman").

A lot of the conversation centered around just why the Joker is so great. Basically, it's because he isn't funny, apparently:

Azzarello: When you try to tell a Joker story, it's not going to have a happy ending. I don't think he's funny, I think he's one of those guys who thinks he's funny. He's bigger than you, and if you don't laugh at his jokes, he'll put a bottle in your neck.
Dini: I think of the Joker as the ultimate bully. Nothing he says is funny, apart from to him.
Morrison: The Joker's great to write, because he changes all the time. He's not even funny at all, he's just bad news. He's the guy who comes in when you're sitting in the subway and sits next to you and he starts reading your book. You're just like, please please please go away, please, and he just keeps coming.
Azzarello: He was easy to write, for me. He doesn't think. He's literally in the now, like a dog.
Robinson: I enjoy seeing the different interpretations of the character. Part of my initial intent was to create a character with all these contradictions against his nature.
Morrison: He has to be the opposite of Batman: Where Batman is healthy, he has to be diseased. When he's the opposite of Batman, you can't go wrong.
Robinson: We didn't explain the whole being, why he's white. I thought it would be cool not to explain it, make it part of the whole mystery of the character. We discussed it and decided not to explain it.
Azzarello: As soon as you give him a definitive origin, you take away a lot of the power of the character.
Morrison: And it shouldn't make sense, he shouldn't make sense. He's chaos.

Unsurprisingly, The Dark Knight came in for a lot of praise, with Morrison calling it "the best Batman movie ever thought of." Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker was also singled out for praise, with Robinson saying that it captured the spirit of this generation's Joker.

When it comes to current Batman storyline "Batman RIP," everyone involved is keeping their mouths firmly shut aside from saying that it will change the character considerably. Asked about the origins of the current deconstructive storyline, Morrison explained that he wanted to make his run on the title about the history of the character, including all of the oft-ignored 1950s science fiction stories:

For me, all the Batman stories really happened. Like, when he was 24, he and Robin were running around, tripping on Joker gas.

With fans asking what comes next, Detective Comics artist Dustin Nguyen suggested "Batman SOS," while Morrison teased the room by saying, "New Batman, new Robin? Think about it."

Whatever comes next will be handled by the same creative teams; both Morrison and Paul Dini said that they were on their titles indefinitely, with Morrison saying that he'd write Batman until he died, given the choice. Not that they're sharing who that Batman will be; asked about who their ideal replacement for Bruce Wayne would be, Morrison shouted, "I'm writing it! I can't tell you that!"

After explaining what "RIP" doesn't stand for - It's not "Really Is Pennyworth," as some stealth reveal that the villain will turn out to be helpful butler Alfred Pennyworth; Morrison eventually admitted that RIP stands for whatever you want it to stand for (He suggested "Rubber Is Perfect" as his preferred meaning) - the panel ended with each writer explaining how much politics plays into their interpretation of the character. Brian Azzarello (writer of the upcoming The Joker graphic novel) said that politics played in "a lot," while Dini said that he didn't really think of his writing in political terms. Morrison, of course, closed the panel by summing up his take of why the world needs a Batman:

It's more to do with the way things feel, rather than (specific) events. That's why Batman is a good hero for this culture, which is quite dark and war-based. It's not specific events, it's more a feeling of the way things are... That's why Batman is so cool. He doesn't use guns and he still kicks your ass. That's the whole point. That's his psychology. If Batman kills everyone, he's just another soldier. We don't need another soldier, we have millions of soldiers. We need Batman.

The secret to successfully taking superheroes into other media, according to everyone on the panel - Lee, Penn and Iron Man screenwriter Mark Fergus - was to treat action as secondary to character; a lesson learned by Lee during the 1970s Spider-Man TV show:

That was the worst thing ever made! When I saw the first episode, I called a meeting at CBS and said "There's no characterization, there's no way you can care about the characters," I said, "There's no story there!" The next day, the director sent me a note and said "I very much appreciate the things you said, but I cannot fly by the seat of Stan Lee's pants." And the show got cancelled. You have to believe in the characters.

Sadly for moviemakers, Penn still thinks that the comics get it right more often than the movies - One comic in particular:

I have to be honest, when I read The Ultimates, that really changed my thinking. When I read that stuff, I thought, wow, we're really not giving this stuff enough credit. There's a whole other level of realism that we're not getting at. I thought Mark Millar had somehow tapped into what Stan was doing all those years ago and made it real.

Millar may, in fact, be helping out on the next few Marvel movies; Penn made reference to a group of Marvel writers that he couldn't name (but were "the guys who I admire who are writing the great comic book stuff") that are working with him and Marvel Studios' Kevin Feige to plan the story arc lacing through Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger and The Avengers, which are being planned with a strong continuity and storyline running through them. Such experiences, he explained, are unusual in an industry that still, for the most part, doesn't understand comics:

It's incredibly frustrating to deal with some studios who don't like the comic books, who don't like the fans, who don't like me... Or themselves. In Hollywood, when you talk about comic books, they think you're talking about Archie. A lot of these people think that comic books are silly, and they think they're supposed to be silly. And then you get people like Sam Raimi who come along and say, that's comics pre-Stan Lee, you obviously haven't read comics in the last thirty years. It's just stupid, they don't really know the form. And if they did, they'd know that they could make it as smart as possible because the comics are smart.

The ever-enthusiastic Stan Lee, however, sees the future of comic book movies as being very bright:

People ask me, how long will there be superhero movies. As long as there are writers like these two guys who write this stuff like it's Citizen Kane and not like some silly fluff, there will always be superhero movies.

'Nuff said, Stan.

Card is very happy with Marvel's version of the story... which is good, because that version will be the basis of every other medium's adaptation in the future:

I've been waiting a long time to see it come alive visually, and now I'm getting to see it getting done - better than anything that they'd come up with for the [long-delayed] movie - as a comic... Whatever Marvel [and artist Pasqual Ferry] does is how it's going to look in the movie and how it's going to look in the game... We're getting great material.

But beyond the visuals, what will the book read like?

When [comic scriptwriter] Chris Yost started writing the script, it was too faithful to the material. I begged them, please, no narration at all. Ever. I want no narration. I want it all in scenes, please, do what comics do. What he came back with was so powerful that it made me feel like I was reading the story for the first time. It came totally alive.

The Ender's Game series launches in October.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, a lot of fans had a lot of questions about the upcoming Marvel movies, but answers weren't always forthcoming; when asked for a hint as to who will play Captain America in the upcoming The First Avenger movie, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige teased the audience with "You guys want to see Ben Affleck play Captain America?" only to be faced with a room full of boos. More seriously, he replied, "We've had ideas, there've been discussions, but we're going to hire filmmakers before we start making those decisions. But I guess it won't be Ben Affleck."

Will the success of the movies mean that Marvel's publishing operations will move to the West Coast? Joe Quesada isn't sure:

I never gave it any thought, I don't know. There are so many people key to us in publishing... to relocate several hundred people, you'd probably end up losing lots of key people. But the weather's nice out here, so you never know?

Marvel's publishing president Dan Buckley:

I'm not saying anything's impossible, but I don't think it's just an operational or business decision, but it would affect the books, New York is such a character in our books.

In a less physical sense, will future movies stay as close to their comic sources as Iron Man? Kevin Feige says yes, kind of:

We always try to stay true to the comics, but we do make changes. I mean, Obidiah Stane didn't work for Stark Enterprises in the comic books. We try to stay true to the core aspects of each character.

On a similar note, Carla Hoffman, a Southern Californian retailer, asked why none of the Hulk comics out at the time of the release of The Incredible Hulk seemed to reflect what people could see in the film. Joe Quesada admitted that that had maybe been a misstep:

If you look at our track record, we normally do a good job of that. We can't bat a 1000 all the time.

Dan Buckley was less forgiving:

With Iron Man, we didn't have to change a lot with what we were already doing, and we thank Matt [Fraction, writer of The Invincible Iron Man] for that. With the Hulk, we've been publishing that kind of story for years and years, so we'd point people back to the trade paperbacks for that... We don't want to get to the point where we're corporately dictating to people what they're writing.

Did The Incredible Hulk movie live up to expectations? Feige:

It did, it absolutely did. We were very pleased with the response. We always said that if it made one dollar more than the last one did, it would be a success, and it made more than one dollar more. The Hulk will return.

Will he return in the Avengers? And, more importantly, who else will show up in The Avengers movie? Feige wasn't sharing:

We have [all the cast lined up], and you'll see them pop up together. That's the idea.

Could anyone confirm Jon Favreau was definitely working on Iron Man 2? Feige:

I can't comment on that. But it comes to, do we want fans back for Iron Man 2? There'll be an announcement soon.

On the comic side on things, apparently suggesting that Spider-Man made a deal with the Devil to retcon his marriage away in One More Day isn't something that makes people at Marvel happy. When a fan brought up the subject, Dan Buckley interrupted:

I think it's unfair to burden this all on Joe. I think it was incredibly brave of Joe to [draw it]. First of all, that story's not over... The consequences of happiness versus unhappiness haven't been dealt with. He didn't do a deal with the devil, [Mephisto] isn't the devil, he's a supervillain in the Marvel Universe.

Joe Quesada disagreed:

Go back and reread One More Day and tell me who made the deal with the Devil. Peter didn't make the deal with the Devil, Mary Jane did. This was a story that we HAD to do to get Peter to a particular place. The idea of a Faustian pact... This is a classic part of literature. I think it's great to bring up a conversation, if you have a 5 year old, it brings up a great conversation. They're all morality plays that bring up different ideas for you to deal with as you raise a child. I think it's a matter on how you deal with it.

For people looking forward to the upcoming Wolverine And The X-Men cartoon, producer Craig Kyle was happy to talk it up:

It's 21 episodes of continuity and five specials. The pay-off lasts four episodes, it's a really, really big show. I'm very proud of the show, it works the only way the X-Men works: Like the comic book. My plan was to kick the hell out of [the '90s cartoon].

The last question of the panel also proved to be the biggest surprise to the audience; asked if the Thor movie would play up the Norse God aspects of the character more than the superhero trappings, Kevin Feige said that, well, Thor isn't actually a god at all: He and all the other citizens of Asgard are actually just interdimensional beings. So now you know: According to Marvel, neither gods nor devils are anything more than interdimensional beings in supervillain outfits. I expect the new Mighty Marvel Age of Revised Aethiestic Morality to overwhelm America immediately.

Talking to Newsarama, Waid - who is also the Editor-in-Chief of Boom! - explained that the deal between the publisher and Pixar has been in the works for quite some time:

It's been in development for a couple of years. Of course, the writers strike put a spike in everything for everyone for awhile across all media. But everything is back on track and we were able to make this work... The deal we put together with Disney is Pixar and Muppets. The Pixar end of it gives us reign over creating new properties and new material based on the Pixar movies. So I think our six launches are Incredibles, Toy Story, Monsters Inc., Cars, Wall-E, and Finding Nemo.

If you're wondering what Waid will bring to The Incredibles - besides his experience of writing super-powered families in both Fantastic Four and his recent return to The Flash - he's perfectly happy to share:

When the properties came available, that's the one I seized on immediately. I sort of jumped on that like a junkyard dog and made everyone else get away from it... I can't take my toes completely out of the superhero pool. So yeah, this gives me a chance to work out my superhero jones. And also, it's comedy! I love writing comedy. We've got some great ideas that have been approved by the Pixar organization and Disney. Obviously, they're faithful to the Incredibles property, but they're giving us a little bit of latitude as far as storytelling... We're not limited by strictly what's in the movie. We can hopefully introduce a few new characters and a few new villains and play it out from there.

The first sighting of the new comics is, of course, at San Diego Comic-Con, where Boom! are giving away a special preview comic with excerpts from the comic versions of Toy Story, Finding Nemo and Monsters, Inc.. The actual series themselves will launch in Spring of 2009.

Mark Waid Talks New BOOM! Studios/ Disney-Pixar Deal [Newsarama]

After an introduction to the twelve guest-strong panel made the announcement confirming the longtime rumor of a Flash: Rebirth series (by the Green Lantern: Rebirth creative team of Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver), Johns said that his favorite Flash was "all of them," and added that "If you guys like what we did with Green Lantern, hopefully you'll check out what we do with Flash... Just trust us. We're gonna try and take Flash and turn it into another epic like Green Lantern. It's all about who all of these Flashes are."

Starting an all-new rumor, Ambush Bug creator Keith Giffen asked the audience, " If you were to hear that Paul Levitz and I were returning to the Legion, what would you think? Just asking." Apparently, assembled fandom would like that idea, if the cheers and applause in the room was anything to go by. Does this mean that the favorite 1980s creative team is going to return to the title post-reality-warping Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds, or are fanstrings being plucked just to toy with the faithful?

Talking of strings being plucked, DC Executive Editor Dan Didio responded to a question about whether October's DCU: Decisions series, where the DC superheroes will endorse political parties, is expected to cause controversy and upset, by saying that "it's not the book you think it is. It's a book to inspire thought, change and ideas." Good to know that DC has mastered the art of political non-speak in advance of its release, at least.

Otherwise, everyone wanted to know what's happening with Batman: Suggesting that the "RIP" in Batman RIP may stand for "Replacement Is Possible," Didio caused very vocal upset from the room when he said "Okay, hypothetically speaking, what if Bruce Wayne was gone?" Another disappearance causing worry is Catwoman's, following the recent cancellation of her own series, but Didio told fans not to worry, as she'll become a regular cast member in Paul Dini's Detective Comics and wasn't really going anywhere:"She's very important to RIP and what happens post RIP," he added. Also due to make an appearance soon is Batwoman, as Greg Rucka - accompanied by a real-life Batwoman on stage - came the closest anyone has to officially confirming the existence of the Batwoman series he and JH Williams are working on, telling a fan "Magic iPod says, ask again in three or four weeks."

If you're waiting on news of Batman's health at home, however, you have far less time to wait; tomorrow's 2:15 Batman panel about the comics future for Gotham's protector is subtitled "No Rest For The Dark Knight." Sorry, Bruce.

The new series announced at the panel were an ongoing series for Jeff Parker's retro Agents of ATLAS, Planet Hulk's Greg Pak replacing Iron Man: Director of SHIELD with a new book starring Jim Rhodes' armored alter-ego War Machine, and Underworld's Kevin Grevioux creating Marvel's latest forgotten hero, Adam: Legend of the Blue Marvel.

Talking about the latest book, Grevioux explained that it's a book that he's always wanted to do. In the late 1950s and early '60s, the most famous and well-loved hero in the Marvel Universe was the Blue Marvel... until it was revealed that he was, under the cowl, black. "In the '60s, a black man with that much power wouldn't have been perceived as very friendly, no matter the [intent]," explained Grevioux, which leads to President Kennedy asking the hero to go into hiding to help the burgeoning civil rights movement. His hiding works too well, and when the hero's nemesis returns 40 years after his presumed death, it's up to the Avengers to find the forgotten hero.

The announcement that led to confused silence was Electric Ant, a new five-issue adaptation of the Philip K. Dick story of the same name by Kabuki's David Mack and Pascal Alixe that launches in November. After a quick explanation of who Philip K. Dick was to a subdued audience, Marvel's Jim McCann added that Paul Pope would be providing covers... to a surprising lack of reaction from the audience. When your audience has to be told to applaud, I'm sure that that's not a good sign.

(Personally, I'm excited; the art looks good, if nothing else. And Paul Pope covers? Come on.)

The audience was much less quiet when it came to asking questions. Greg Pak teased what will happen when - not if - the Hulk will meet Skaar, his son from the World War Hulk storyline:

Maybe they'll sit down, see a ballgame, have some fun. Or maybe some smashing will ensue. Who can say?

Asked if Marvel will pull back from the continuity-heavy "event" stories that have dominated the company's line for the last few years, McCann gave a practical answer:

I don't think we've been swamped with major events as much as it's been serialized storytelling, and stories have led to each other [Laughter from audience]. Hey, don't laugh. Whatever happens in Civil War is going to spill out of Civil War, it's not Vegas... Things just naturally lead. Will we stop having massive events? I don't know, you keep buying 'em.

And if you're wondering who would win in a battle between Marvel's Dazzler and DC's Green Lantern, McCann had no doubt:

Oh, come on. All [Dazzler] has to do is go "Ooh! Yellow!" and [he's] dead.

Who said that Comic-Con isn't educational?